The Importance of Web Maintenance

Security: One of the primary reasons for implementing a web maintenance plan is to enhance the security of your website. Regular updates and security patches help safeguard your site against potential threats and cyber attacks, ensuring the safety of sensitive information and protecting your reputation.

Customer Experience: A well-maintained website provides visitors with a seamless and enjoyable browsing experience. By keeping your site free from errors, broken links, and outdated content, you can enhance user satisfaction and encourage repeat visits.

SEO and Traffic: Search engines like Google prioritize websites that are regularly updated and maintained. By consistently refreshing your content, optimizing for keywords, and ensuring technical compliance, you can improve your search engine rankings and attract more organic traffic to your site.

Customer Engagement: Keeping your website dynamic and engaging is essential for retaining the interest of your audience. With regular updates, custom banners, and fresh content, you can captivate visitors and encourage them to explore further, ultimately driving conversions and sales.

Data Backup: Web maintenance plans typically include regular backups of your website’s files and data. In the event of a system failure, security breach, or other unforeseen circumstances, these backups ensure that you can quickly restore your site to its previous state, minimizing downtime and loss of valuable information.

Utilizing Your Website Package With PMC Media Group

At PMC Media Group, we offer comprehensive web maintenance plans designed to keep your website running smoothly and efficiently. Here’s how our services can benefit your business:

Monthly Content Backups: We perform regular backups of your website’s content to our secure servers, ensuring that your data remains safe and accessible at all times.

Custom Sliding Web Banners: Our team creates custom-designed sliding banners for your homepage, keeping your website visually appealing and up-to-date with fresh content.

Updating Plugins and Themes: We ensure that your website’s plugins and themes are updated regularly to maintain functionality and security.

Minor Troubleshooting: Our experts handle minor troubleshooting tasks to address any issues or errors that may arise, ensuring uninterrupted performance.

File Management and Optimization: We manage and optimize your website’s files and images to enhance loading speed and overall performance.

By investing in our web maintenance services, you can enjoy the following benefits:

– Improved Google search ranking and SEO performance
– Enhanced user experience and customer satisfaction
– Continued engagement and interest from your target audience
– Peace of mind knowing that your website is secure and well-maintained

Web maintenance is a critical aspect of managing a successful online presence. By prioritizing regular updates, security checks, and content optimization, you can ensure that your website remains a valuable asset to your business, driving growth and success in the digital landscape. Contact PMC Media Group for any of your website related issues or udpates by simply emailing support@pmcne.com.

The Power of SEO Strategy

An effective SEO strategy orchestrates your website’s content in a systematic manner, increasing its visibility in search results and maximizing opportunities to attract organic traffic. As demonstrated by Brightedge’s study, organic search remains a dominant force, far surpassing the contributions of paid search and organic social media combined since 2014.

Elevating Your Website’s Performance

PMC Media Group’s SEO packages are meticulously crafted to ensure your website operates at its peak potential. By leveraging our expertise, you can enhance your website’s traffic and bolster conversion rates, ultimately driving tangible results for your business.

Optimizing your website for SEO isn’t just about climbing search rankings—it’s about creating a seamless user experience that resonates with your audience. A website geared towards conversions boasts improved metrics such as time spent on the page and reduced bounce rates, factors that Google values highly in its search algorithm.

Tailored Strategies for Success

Our SEO packages are designed to provide comprehensive solutions that address the unique needs and objectives of your business. By implementing best practices and staying abreast of the latest industry trends, we ensure your website remains at the forefront of search engine results, driving sustained growth and engagement.

Optimizing for Both SEO and Conversions

At PMC Media Group, we understand the delicate balance between Search Engine optimization and conversion-focused strategies. By prioritizing valuable content creation, strategic keyword placement, and seamless user experience design, we harmonize your efforts to deliver exceptional results that resonate with both search engines and your target audience.

Our Commitment to Excellence

With PMC Media Group’s Search Engine Optimizations packages, you gain access to a team of seasoned professionals dedicated to your success. From sharing valuable, authoritative content to optimizing metadata and ensuring mobile responsiveness, we employ a holistic approach to elevate your website’s performance and visibility.

Get Started Today

Elevate your online presence and unlock the full potential of your website with PMC Media Group’s comprehensive SEO packages. Contact us today to learn more about how we can tailor our services to meet your specific needs and propel your business to new heights in the dynamic digital landscape of 2024 and beyond.

Frequently Asked Questions about SEO:

1. Why is SEO important for my website in 2024?SEO is crucial as it enhances your website’s visibility to search engines like Google, increasing the likelihood of appearing in relevant search results and driving organic traffic to your site.
2. How do I choose the right keywords for SEO?Identify keywords that align with your audience’s search intent using tools like Google’s Keyword Planner. Select terms that resonate with your content and integrate them naturally throughout your website.
3. What’s the difference between SEO and conversion optimization?SEO focuses on optimizing your website for search engines, while conversion optimization aims to guide visitors towards specific actions, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. Balancing both ensures your website delivers a seamless experience and drives desired outcomes.

At PMC Media Group, we’re here to help you navigate the intricacies of SEO and unlock the full potential of your online presence. Let’s embark on this journey together.

The potential for generating revenue through Instagram Reels is practically limitless. However, the short-form video format is quite unlike anything that has gone before on Instagram, making it a particularly difficult challenge for marketers. It’s quicker, wittier, and trendier than ever before, and what worked last week may not work the next. We’ve put up an in-depth guide on how to begin producing Instagram Reels and achieving success with short-form video to help you and your brand navigate this territory.

1. What Are Instagram Reels?
2. How to Make a Reel on Instagram
3. Instagram Reels Sizes and Dimensions
4. How to Access Instagram Reels Analytics
5. How to Get Your Reels on the Instagram Explore Page
6. Using Instagram Reels to Grow Your Business

What Are Instagram Reels?

Instagram Reels are a type of short video that is fun and easy to watch. You can scroll through many videos at once, similar to TikTok.

Reels are simple to make, and people enjoy programming that is genuine, which presents a dilemma for advertisers. Reels that appear to be over-produced will not perform well; nevertheless, any social media manager can pick up their phone and start recording material without much effort, making it easier to film Reels at a regular cadence.

Instagram Reels are highly discoverable on the Explore page, making it a primary destination for viewers who may not have heard about your brand to find and engage with your content.

Instagram Reels vs TikTok: How Are They Different?

While TikTok popularized the short-form video format, there are a number of distinctions between Instagram Reels and TikTok that businesses should think about when deciding which platforms to utilize. While Instagram Reels for brands may take some planning, if your brand already has a established presence on Instagram, you’re ahead of the game. Your existing followers will be able to see and engage with your new content. With TikTok, you have to start from scratch in terms of building an audience. Some other key differences are:

• Instagram Reels is shareable on Instagram Stories and viewable to your existing followers
• Length: Instagram Reels are up to 60 seconds long, while TikToks can be up to 3 minutes long
• Social Channel Connectivity: Instagram is owned by Meta, and your brand accounts, advertising, and product catalogs can all be integrated to be consistent across Facebook and Instagram management tools; TikTok isn’t connected to any other social networks
• Purpose: Instagram has a feature called reels, while TikTok is entirely focused on short-form video

Instagram Reels vs Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories were introduced in 2016, and over the years they have become a staple of the Instagram platform. Instagram Reels were introduced in 2020, and like Stories, they were introduced to complement Instagram’s existing features, rather than replace anything. Stories and Reels are not competing features, and, in fact, work together well for brands that are invested in both.

Reels can be shared as Instagram Stories, which can be a powerful cross-promotional strategy to make sure your material is seen by as many of your followers as possible.

How to Make a Reel on Instagram

Reels on Instagram are easy to make; simply aim your phone’s camera at a subject and press record. With the channel’s creative tools, marketers can quickly create high-quality Reels. You access the button for posting a reel from the same navigation menu where you post regular Post and Stories content. That is where you come in. You may either record live content on the fly or record video from your phone utilizing this feature. Make good use of the timer to capture short spurts of hands-free film, and experiment with Instagram’s powerful editing capabilities to create seamless transitions, line up objects and backgrounds, join multiple clip videos together, and explore the Instagram music library to really help your video stand out.

If you’re looking to post produced videos, keep this in mind: lo-fi footage shot on your phone in the moment is often seen as more authentic by viewers and therefore performs better. You don’t have to break the bank or spend hours upon hours filming to create successful content – sometimes spontaneity is key!

Pro Instagram Reels tip: Aim for around 60 seconds. Just like on TikTok, people scroll quickly through short videos on Insta, so you need to hook them fast if you don’t want them to keep scrolling. It’s totally ok to post way shorter Reels than the max time!

How to Add Music to Instagram Reels

Select the music icon from the left navigation menu. Instagram will then show you a variety of top songs as well as original audio to use. You may also search for music that you’ve saved, or utilize the search button in the upper right corner to look for specific songs.

Read How to Find Trending Audio here

How to Add Effects to Instagram Reels

From the left navigation menu, select the icon represented by three sparkles. From there you can add branded or trending special effects to your Reel, or even alter its appearance in real-time using extremely popular AR effects. If you’re struggling to find a particular effect, don’t worry – you can also search for it directly from this page.

Instagram Reels Sizes and Dimensions

Reels are recorded in 1080p wide and 1920p long dimensions. Usually, your phone or Instagram camera will automatically adjust the size as you film. However, if you’re uploading produced video, then you’ll need to be aware of the dimensions of a Reel.

How to Access Instagram Reels Analytics

The Insights feature on Instagram provides Reels analytics to businesses and creators alike. In most situations, companies use a business account for their Instagram marketing campaigns. However, if you want to learn more about the slight discrepancies between these two types of accounts, be sure to read our blog post on Instagram creator accounts.

From your account, go to Insights and then Accounts Reached in the History section. You may examine the success of your Reels from there. Select the arrow to the right of your number of Reels to get even more detailed information on how particular Reels have performed.

How to Get Your Reels on the Instagram Explore Page

Instagram closely guards the secret to its algorithm. While we can only speculate what goes into making content that is served at the top of users’ Explore pages, there are a few best practices for successful content:

• Find the reels that your audience is most interested in, and utilize it when determining what to film next
• On Instagram, your primary demographic may be different than it is on TikTok; figure out who they are (for example, whether they’re likely to be older), and see if your brand needs to take a different approach to get them interested
• Encourage your clients to interact with your content and work hard to build an active community of users –– engagement is a strong indication for Instagram’s algorithm that Reels are worth sharing with more audiences, and great material has the potential to snowball into an overnight success
• Use popular, relevant tags to explain your material to Instagram’s algorithm, especially if you are targeting a specific group
• By using Instagram’s analytics, you can discover what part of your reach is from users who don’t follow you. Doing this will help show which content does better on the Explore page

Using Instagram Reels to Grow Your Business

Now that Instagram has more than 2 billion monthly active users, it’s a social media platform that your brand cannot afford to miss out on. Although Facebook still boasts the most significant number of monthly active users across all social channels, Instagram is quickly catching up and may even surpass Facebook in the near future

If you’re looking to refresh your brand’s presence on Instagram, Reels are the perfect way to do so. They departure from traditional features will helpBInvesting in this new format may feel like starting your Instagram presence from scratch, but it could be exactly what you need to gain some more followers

Reels, with its ability to create captivating short-form videos, may be what your brand needs to boost interaction

1. Use Instagram Reels in your Ad Strategy

Brands may use Instagram’s paid promotion features to get their Reels adverts in front of more people. They can be liked, saved, and shared just like any other piece of content.

The old-fashioned approach to generating brand awareness through your Reels is to purchase sponsored spots on Reels. The cost of a single ad, which runs for 30 days, is $1,000. This approach may help you use your best-performing Reels to reach out to more people and be discovered by those who have not heard of your company before. Advertisements for Reels may appear in the feed, on the Discover page, and in the Reels tab.

2. Provide Product Tutorials

The short-form video format is ideal for delivering product or service explanations that are succinct but effective. Makeup tutorials using company products are being produced by beauty companies, and consumer electronics companies are giving demonstrations of the newest technology. Reels are an excellent method to communicate your brand’s value proposition with new audiences, whether it’s a positive or negative element.

3. Give Sneak Peeks of Upcoming Launches and Sales

Instagram Reels are easy to share, and viewers enjoy feeling like they’re in the know. By using short-form video in your campaign strategy, you may entice your followers to engage with and spread your material by providing unique sneak peeks and teasers of upcoming releases, or product sales. The higher engagement Reels receive, the better they perform, therefore adding a hint of mystery can help your brand’s performance on the algorithm.

4. Partner with Instagram Influencers

Short-form video is all about the creators. Viewers prefer Reels with a human face, and by collaborating with creators that already have an engaged audience, your brand will benefit considerably as it enters the format. Creator partnerships take more legwork than typical influencer sponsorships because you are actually co-creating a video with a user, but the effort is well worth it.

5. Give a Behind-The-Scenes Look at Your Brand

Many brands are succeeding by having their employees participate in Reels, which gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the people who make up the brand. This is an opportunity for you to show your audience that there are real humans behind your business and form a deeper emotional connection with them.

Enjoy yourself while filming your Reels- don’t take them too seriously! The best content is almost always humorous and lighthearted. Be creative and film videos that will capture people’s attention.

Before you get started, figure out what you want to gain from social media marketing. Is it a way to be seen? Do you want your business more known? Do you wish to increase awareness of your brand? Or do you intend to attract new clients? Knowing precisely why you’re using social media will make tracking success and determining which tools are valuable easier.

2. Be patient

It takes time to build up a social media following, especially if you’re new to the game. So don’t get discouraged; expect roadblocks and plateaus as you work toward establishing a presence strong enough that people start coming in at a regular rate – and keeping them coming back once they’ve seen it! You may need to modify your material on a regular basis or adjust your marketing strategies before seeing results.

3. Treat social media like traditional marketing

Even if something is labeled “social media,” you can’t forget all of the basic marketing principles. If you want to stay ahead of the competition, make sure to establish an effective internet presence for your business by utilizing attention-grabbing headlines and succinct text. When it’s possible, include photos even with links. Also keep in mind that social media is interactive, so be responsive when people interact with you through the sites’ tools. This means replying courteously and professionally if consumers have inquiries, complaints, or compliments – after all, they are your clients!

4. Make it easy for users to share what you publish

Make sure that what you’re promoting is actually shareable on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. It will not only increase the amount of exposure for your material, but it will also show that the information is worth sharing in the first place. Always have prominent social networking buttons when you create new content so that people may quickly spread the news about your company without having to make much effort on their part.

5. Be consistent

When it comes to posting on social media sites, each business type has its own criteria, but there is one rule that holds true across the board: be consistent so consumers know what to anticipate. Make a calendar of when and how often you’ll post material, offer visitors with links to your social network accounts when they come to your website, provide them an idea of what kind of material you’ll publish in the future – and follow through!

6. Cross-promote

Consider promoting posts via newsletters or linking to them on your website if feasible. Consider utilizing social media in conjunction with traditional marketing tools such as TV commercials or billboards – even hiring actors who resemble your web persona! Also, consider cross-promoting with fellow business owners in the same sector by cross-promoting with one another.

7. Let influencers do some of the work

Influencer marketing is an effective strategy for boosting brand awareness and increasing sales. Because people tend to trust authoritative sources, it’s critical to have influencer marketing on your side. So why not let prominent social media figures do some of the legwork for you? Incentivize them to share links from your site with their followers and provide something in return, such as special offers or a sneak peek at a product release. Remember that influencers can be found all around—even at trade shows or community gatherings—so keep your eyes open!

8. Pay attention to trends

Everything changes on a daily basis, so keep up with the newest trends on social media (and beyond) to stay current. Keep track of hashtags and their popularity; if you’re not sure what a hashtag is or why it’s important, learn more about it. Then you can start utilizing hashtags in your posts when they’ve hit critical mass and gained momentum.

9. Keep an open mind and be honest about your mistakes

Nothing is flawless in this world, even internet marketing endeavors! Just keep in mind that if things don’t go exactly as planned, it does not imply that social media has failed you. A little openness may actually assist clients in understanding what went wrong and how you plan to correct it in the future.

10. Set goals in advance

Before attempting anything new in social media marketing, it’s important for company owners to define success in their own terms; after all, there are several ways to measure if an effort was a success or a failure. Putting up a photo on Instagram that receives 1,000 likes might be considered successful, but not if just 50 people click the link to your website as a consequence. To avoid any later disputes, consider how you’ll measure certain social media marketing objectives before devoting too much time and energy into any one strategy.

11. Test out new ideas

You may test a concept only if you believe it will work for you, so test it first! That may appear to be a no-brainer since marketers all over the world should at least pre-test their plan before finalizing anything, but it comes up again and again in social media discussions because it’s critical for success. So go outside of your comfort zone and see how things turn out; if it’s a complete failure, there’s no harm done!

Do you remember way back when your favorite social media platform was born? Instagram was created back in 2010, Facebook in 2004, LinkedIn in 2002, and Twitter in 2006. I’m sure you can imagine the metamorphosis these social media giants have gone through since their inception! 

Instagram 

With a strong start in 2010, Instagram was the leading photo-sharing app! With filters to perfect the look of your images and personal profiles that showed a snapshot of your life, Instagram quickly became a staple in growing businesses’ online presence.  

Now, Instagram profiles are carefully curated, planned, and edited to show only the most ideal snapshots of a user’s life or strong highlights of their business. With features such as reels, tap to shop, stories with polling options, and so much more – Instagram is a powerhouse when connecting with the world. Different profile types were rolled out and the age of influencers boomed!  

Including Instagram in your social media strategy is critical in reaching your friends, family, fans, and customer base! 

Facebook 

Kicking off in 2004, Facebook began as a way to connect with friends and family from around the world! Updating statuses and chatting with friends via PM was a quick form of entertainment after a long work or school day.  

Now, Facebook has changed its parent company name to Meta in order to host its family of products! Viral videos are still spreading like wildfire, advertising has reached a whole new level, and businesses are able to reach their customers/potential customers more efficiently than ever before with dozens of ways to run ads and hit target markets. 

Facebook is a huge tool in running your business on a digital scale, a great way to pull analytics, and strategize on how your campaigns should move forward!  

LinkedIn 

This professional networking platform, born in 2002, has now turned into one of the leading ways to search for open positions, connect with industry professionals, learn about trends in your chosen field, and so much more! There are so many features that will come in handy for use in your professional life, and tons of ways to soak in knowledge.  

Share informational articles, connect with companies you love, and learn about what they’re up to, and so much more – LinkedIn is a huge asset for any working professional and especially, any B2B company! 

Twitter 

Short snippets reign on this popular platform! Starting back in 2006, Twitter was the go-to place to update everyone about anything and everything – from the most life-altering moments to the most mundane of tasks. Originally with a character limit of 140, short snippets were all you could get out! 

Fast forward to 2021 where the character limit doubled to 280, and content is far-spreading from news, to trending videos, industry topics, and more. Have something groundbreaking to share? Twitter is the platform to announce it on! Perfect for news and other attention-grabbing pieces of content, including Twitter in your marketing strategy for 2022 could make your brand extraordinary. 

Social media is a huge asset when it comes to promoting your business and sharing what you’re all about! It’s crucial to not only include a robust social media strategy in your marketing plans for 2022 but to adapt to the new changes each platform brings throughout the year!  

Build your brand where the world is watching and call the social media experts at PMC Media Group! We’ll refresh your strategy and ensure that your digital footprint is impactful and always evolving with the times. Our strategists are ready to create! (401) 667-7777 https://pmcne.com/  

While browsing through websites it’s clear to see that they all differ in content, visuals, messaging, and the list goes on. There may even be different information that is displayed based on your latest location, browsing history, or even your most frequent purchases.  

Websites that contain dynamic content are known for having great engagement and high conversions. Based on analytics, this most likely means that it may be a hot trend moving forward into the new year. 

As popular and important as SEO is, we all know that voice commands work! Many of us who have a cell phone have some sort of voice command options (Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Google, and others…) to help us research, find the closest coffee shop, find the cheapest gas station, and even create our next shopping list. The most logical next step is to implement this technology into a website.  

For example, why not add a custom long-tail keyword or phrase within your business content that is based on how people speak rather than how they type. For example, “Where is the closest dry cleaners to my location?” vs. “cleaners near me”.  

Very similar to the voice optimization category, accessibility will be the next big thing. As web designers continue to enhance the UI/UX throughout each page, the page navigation options will become far more advanced than they currently are.  

These same designers will be able to customize page features that do not rely on keyboard functions, but rather use voice commands, virtual reality, augmented reality, and more. 

As time moves forward within the web and design world, the trends have started to move towards a more simplistic and elegant look and feel. With the coming year right around the corner, it is safe to say that the white space strategy has become the new norm.   

Dark mode is taking over screens across the globe. Not only does it feel like you gave your phone and applications a face lift, but it offers a fresh look opposed to the traditional colors and layout. The dark mode design also helps with eye strain for users and can highlight content and visuals easier. 

Do you know the percentage of people accessing your website through their mobile devices? 53%! Smartphones and tablets are taking over, and this information is vital to the web design community. The designing mobile-first mentality is a no-brainer. This focus is important to the structure and layout of upcoming websites.  

Dynamic scrolling means that your featured content is all contained within one page, vs having to access another page for the continued content. This is a great feature to be able to minimize any friction users may feel while browsing the site. 

Interactive is the new sliced bread, people cannot get enough of it. Whether it is used in a poll, a quiz, an online calculator, or any other type of tool, your users will become even more attracted to the website. This feature adds relevant, exquisite, and valuable interactive content for your audience. This will definitely become a part of the web design process for years to come. 

Patience is something that is diminishing within our society, we want everything now. About 20 years ago, we would have no problem for a website to load after 30 seconds. Now we want to pull our hair out if we must wait more than 5 seconds. Anything past 5 seconds will increase the bounce rate for a website. The recommended load time for a website should be around 2.4 seconds. This is something to think about while building and developing a new site. 

Staying relevant within your local community is crucial for many businesses. As 2022 comes around, it is recommended to have a strong local SEO. Any content and SEO keywords and phrases should have modifiers such as, “near me”, and “close by”. This will help with your local user’s Google searches tremendously.  

Three words that contain just enough hype to make every football fan wake up on the right side of the bed. You go about your business for the day because let’s face it, you still have things to do. But you do them with a little more pep in your step. You can’t help but look at your watch periodically, counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds until kickoff. You don’t even have to be in the stands watching it happen live to feel the rush of adrenaline as one team lines up to kick.

The excitement isn’t purely manufactured, though. It’s easy to live on the edge of your seat for a sport where big plays, long gains, and momentum-swinging touchdowns can always happen in the blink of an eye. Still, the more you look around you, the more you see evidence of the Patriots and NFL’s multi-touch point marketing strategies.

The New England Patriots, for instance, have employed a popular saying of head coach Bill Belichick during his 16-year long reign: Do Your Job. The slogan has become so popular that the NFL allowed a documentary of the Pats’ 2014 Super Bowl win to use it as the title. It appeared everywhere during that year’s post season run – on social media, on memorabilia, and on paraphernalia in digital storefronts across the nation. Just as the players wearing the silver, red, and navy were expected to do their jobs at their respective positions, fans were expected to do their job by being as loyal and supportive as ever. And boy, did those fans do it: Jessica Gelman, vice president of customer marketing and retail strategy compared the retail success of the slogan to “lightning in a bottle.”

Unfortunately for the Pats, the slogan was appropriated by the Democratic Party when they took aim at the GOP-controlled U.S. senate in March of 2016. Still, the impact that the saying has had on the Patriots’ locker-room and fan culture is likely to live on for as long as we can see into the future.

But the NFL isn’t the only league with teams that employs sports marketing to hype up fans. While the Pats were prepping for more championship runs, the Boston Celtics were knee guard-deep in a rebuilding process. In 2014, they were still dealing with the aftermath of a mega-trade that sent local favorites and NBA champions Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets. The transition period was rocky, as any true Celtics fan would remember; It must have been tough for the organization’s marketing team to sell the Celtics brand when two of its biggest brand ambassadors no longer wore shamrock green. The solution they came up with leveraged the culture of the Boston Celtics, which was and still is larger than any one player. New spots under the theme “Green Runs Deep” would routinely play on Comcast Sports Net New England after timeouts during the 2014-2015 NBA season. The storybook-like copy was as poetic as it was unifying, stating emphatically “No matter the name on the jersey – ever green.”

One year later, Allen & Gerritsen were contracted to update the campaign while still keeping #GreenRunsDeep as the team’s official rally cry. Their work utilized “game footage projected on the players against a gritty background” to reflect “the passion and intensity every player will bring to each and every game.”

The Celtics began their 2016 season on October 26th, but it’s clear that they are moving in a different direction this year. Debuting two :15 spots one after another during the first timeout, it seems that the storied franchise is going with #ItsNotLuck as their new hype slogan. It will be interesting to see how the phrase evolves over time, but there’s no denying how dynamic their first few executions are.

Good sports marketing is what links players, coaches, staff, media personnel, and fans. Again and again, studies have shown that human beings need to feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves to truly feel alive. Sports are our escape into a world of our own colors and excitement. We truly believe that if we scream louder, shout longer, or stomp our feet harder that we will affect the game in some way. Marketing fans the flames of passion and keeps the current of energy flowing from game day to game day.

It’s 7:45, that coffee cup is empty and you’re ready to tackle the day. Before you leave, you can’t forget to check your favorite Instagram account for either a motivational picture or a funny meme to kick the workday off on the right foot.

It’s interesting to think about how often one checks their social media feeds and how they have become part of our daily schedules. Just like our wardrobe essentials, social media has key essentials to success as well.

Social media is much more then just posting pretty selfies on Instagram or sharing your location on Facebook. Social media has become an outlet for brands to reach their consumers on a whole new level. Looking back to 2004, Facebook launched as a social website for college students. Over the past 12 years it has become a multi-billion dollar company uniting people from all around the world. Over the past few years, advertisers have found their spot within social media. It has become a part of our everyday routines, just like getting dressed.

We’ve picked out a few essential aspects every social media brand should be paying very close attention to, and threw in a few of our favorites for some inspiration 

Understanding the Audience: You wouldn’t wear your New Years Eve dress to brunch with your in-laws, would you? Running errands? Throw on your favorite jeans and vans. Dinner date? That new skirt you picked up last weekend. Social media brands need to understand their audience to successfully reach them. Rebecca Minkoff’s understanding of her audience allows her to share a lot more then just her products. As a designer, Minkoff has created a line of clothing, shoes, and handbags for fashion forward, young professionals. Her handbags are nothing less than innovative, making it easier for commuters to carry everything they need in a bag they don’t need to be embarrassed to have.

With a specific focus on a younger audience, through social media she carries a strong and powerful voice to each of her platforms. However, the content that is posted is hard to compare to any other brand. Rebecca Minkoff not only shares her eye-catching handbags, but also artistic photos, fun videos or Boomerangs – all with slightly inappropriate and lighthearted jokes. Aside from her collection of appealing Instagram pictures, she always keeps up to date with world issues and ties them into her brand. She’s caught the attention of the extremely tech-savvy Millennial crowd. She currently has 696k followers on Instagram, 842k followers on Twitter, and 390k likes on Facebook. If you haven’t yet, make sure to check her out.

Audience Engagement: Audience engagement may be difficult to perfect but will take your brand further than you think. Typically, brands will want to share their current promotions and advertisements, however this could be an annoyance to their audience. People who are scrolling through their feeds during break do not want to be bombarded with loud advertisements or bothered by aggressive marketing campaigns. PetSmart took an interesting twist when interacting with their audience. Instead of sharing their weekly sales, PetSmart uses Instagram and Facebook to share their customer’s photographs of their pets alongside the occasional promotional offer. PetSmart truly shines the spotlight on not only the customer but their fuzzy friends too! Who wouldn’t want their dog to be Insta-famous anyways?

Visual Brand Identity: When scrolling through your social feed a jaw-dropping picture is bound to catch your attention. Aside from the 140-character statement on Twitter or the impressive number of likes on a Facebook page, photographs speak more than 1,000 words. The visual brand identity to a specific brand is especially important on social media. National Geographic continues to create incredible posts with photographs that are hard to even compare. National Geographic first debuted as a text-based scientific journal about geography and has showed outstanding growth adjusting to technological advances. On each of their social accounts, they have consistently shared scientific articles and artistic photos that show nature from a completely new perspective. Coming from an informational magazine, technology has only brought this brand further due to their outstanding visual brand identity they have created throughout their social media accounts.

Consistency: Each social network may have a different layout with different goals, however your brand should be consistent no matter what. Building off your company website, each social page should have the same feel building up your brand’s personality. Lululemon has taken the social media game at full speed. From their e-blasts, to their website, to each and every one of their social accounts, Lululemon has created a distinctive voice: smart and educated with a witty sense of humor. Lululemon has even brought their voice into each of their brick and mortar stores and individual products. All around, Lululemon has made their brand voice loud and clear. Brand consistency on social media allows the audience to build a bit more trust since the brand’s presence on your feed feels like a real person.

Look at these four topics as the essentials a brand needs when creating their own social media strategy. Understanding the audience, audience engagement, visual brand identity, and consistency are four key components of the social media wardrobe.

For ad nerds like ourselves, there’s nothing more fun than offering our professional opinions on the logos and slogans that we’re gradually being surrounded by every day. Election branding and political advertising is EVERYWHERE: on signs, on shirts, on cars, and even in a kitchen closet near you.

Hillarity (hah!) aside, we’re just getting to the best part of the election, at least from a creative point of view. The silent unveiling of shiny new promotional elements in logos and slogans is an important election milestone that lets bloggers like us have fun. Not that arguing the intricacies of foreign and domestic policy isn’t fun, of course.

The Slogan Battle – Individualism vs Collectivism

Sure, you could visit campaign websites and find clear policy differences between the presidential contenders, but why do that when you can just read a lawn sign? No, seriously – there is no bigger contrast between the two front-runners than their campaign slogans which accurately summarize their political goals. “Make America Great Again”, Donald Trump’s mantra, is perhaps the most all- encompassing slogan seen in decades of American politics. It describes his overseas strategy that seeks to reclaim greatness by squashing other powers around the globe.

More philosophically, it speaks to the individualistic “work hard for what you want” approach to life is often considered deeply American. “Make America Great Again” is a call to action that Trump claims can only be solved by his election to the nation’s highest office. The implicit argument is that America’s shift to multi-culturalism and international co-operation is the wrong path. This resonates especially well with older demographics, who tend to remember their youth as “the good old days”, but it raises eyebrows among the generally more forward-thinking young voters. Despite that, there’s no denying that Trump’s slogan will go down as one of the catchiest of all time whether he wins or loses.

By contrast, Hillary Clinton makes the claim that Americans are “Stronger Together”. This slogan has the unwritten second sentence of “weaker divided”, which is a silent characterization of Trump as an “every man for himself” kind of guy. Interestingly, Clinton’s slogan seems to be less about her campaign goals and more about the Democrats as a brand. It debuted around the time that it became mathematically impossible for rival challenger Bernie Sanders to become the democratic nominee, then picked up steam with the announcement of Tim Kaine as her running mate.

“Stronger Together” was almost certainly engineered to be difficult to disagree with, which helps when Clinton’s trustworthiness numbers remain a sore spot for her campaign. You’re not going to find someone who argues against the strength of community and international co-operation, but you will find persons debating whether Clinton is relatable enough to be branded a uniting leader.

A lot of slogans are one-dimensional in political advertising, either propping up one candidate or slamming all the others in one spell with copywriting fury. Few are able to do both at the same time, and yet both Trump’s and Clinton’s have accomplished this.

The New Battle – Social Media Messaging

With the media industry expanding into new audiences and markets at a breakneck pace, it has to be hard for a Presidential candidate to get favorable coverage. That’s what the new avenues opened up by the social media era so crucial to political advertising. Their ever-changing nature means that political strategists have to learn the lingo of the 21st century, and it’ about time too. We have seen both Trump and Clinton use live video features to grant curious followers unfiltered access to campaign rallies, and the results have been fascinating to watch. Facebook Live can put a boy from The Bahamas in the midst of a Clinton rally, uninterrupted by ads and breaking news tickers. Snapchat filters can let the college sophomore know that Donald Trump will be speaking at their campus in a matter of hours. Sponsored posts with laser- focused targeting can raise awareness for third party candidates like Governor Gary Johnson and Dr. Jill Stein. In Social Media, there are no winners or losers – just a ton of impressions and engaging content. That sounds good to us marketers everywhere.

Americans may be many things this election season – frustrated, confused and scared to name a few – but indifferent is not one of them. It turns out that when controversial candidates and modern marketing mix together, you get millions of voters with that have just as many opinions as they have different platforms to express them on.

The Lowdown on Adblock

Adblock is a free downloadable software that blocks nearly every ad on every website, including those on YouTube and Facebook. However, the software is not exclusive to computer-based browsing, as there are Adblock apps that block ads on mobile devices.

The simplicity of Adblock is very attractive to internet-users, and the low cost (i.e. free) makes it essentially a no-brainer. People are catching on, as Adblock users grew 47% last year to make up half of all U.S. internet users. 55% of 18-24 year olds use Adblock, and that number is quickly growing. This era is fed up with advertising, which is why ad-blocking software is becoming so popular. Consumers don’t want to be interrupted while they consume media, which is why they are migrating to services like Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube. Theyoffer monthly subscription services that remove commercials from the equation.
As you can tell, this disturbs the marketers tremendously, because the advertisements that companies pay for are not getting eyeballs. As a result, the industry is missing out on billions of dollars of potential revenue.

One way to circumvent ad-blocking software is by paying to get on the software’s “whitelist”, but that has strict guidelines. Some websites, like Forbes, are taking the initiative themselves, by enacting code to detect when an ad-blocker is being used and requiring the user to remove the software for the site. But there are also ways for users to circumvent this practice as well.

How Marketers Fight Back

It’s an environment where the technology is always one step ahead, forcing marketers to be reactive instead of proactive. The challenge for marketers is not to restrict Adblock, but instead to develop alternatives that people want to see. The goal is not to continue to inundate the consumer when they are frustrated seeing ads while they read an article or play a mobile game. Businesses need to create more engaging, interesting advertisements that demand the consumer’s attention, not lose it. Social media accounts are a great medium to interact with customers, and more importantly, have a dialogue with them. Direct mail is also a great way to reach a more targeted customer base. TV and radio ads are still effective as well, especially during live events and can’t-miss programming.

Technology brings great changes to our world, but it’s important marketers adapt to make sure their messages stick. Engagement, humanization, and connection are the next step for the advertising world, and PMC is already employing these methods to reach a fan base that is no longer interested in ads. At PMC, our digital marketing team is always looking ahead to find new ways to reach your target customers. We can’t guarantee what the next new technology will be, but we can guarantee that we will be ready to deliver your message in new and creative ways!

(Adblock data from: http://www.cjr.org/analysis/reuters_digital_news_report.php)